Surveillance or Security?: The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies

Susan Landau is the coauthor (with Whitfield Diffie) of Privacy on the Line: The Politics of Wiretapping and Encryption (MIT Press, updated and expanded edition, 2007, 2010).

How, in the name of greater security, our current electronic surveillance policies are creating major security risks.

"By carefully explaining the ways in which excessive surveillance can undermine security, this informative and provocative book turns on its head the traditional--and misleading--assumption that national security and civil liberties must always be balanced against each other, as if they were mutually exclusive objectives on opposite sides of the scale. Landau demonstrates a rare and extremely valuable combination of both technical expertise and policy savvy, and the material is presented in way that is accessible for the general public yet specific enough to guide policymakers in Congress and the Executive branch--for whom it should be required reading. I have been working in the national security arena for over 25 years, and following cybersecurity issues for nearly 15 years, and still found in this book fresh insights and new information that will make a valuable contribution to the important policy debates at the intersection of privacy and security." Suzanne E. Spaulding , Bingham McCutchen, LLP; former Assistant General Counsel, C.I.A.; former Executive Director, National Commission on Terrorism "Governments have been trying to control the Internet since the early 1990s, when they realized that it would change everything and they didn't understand how. Much of the 1990s was spent on the Crypto Wars, as governments tried to control surveillance online. One of the veterans, Susan Landau, gives us a perspective on where the battle lines are now and where surveillance is likely to go in the future." Ross J. Anderson , Professor of Security Engineering, University of Cambridge "Susan Landau has taken an exceptionally complex but vital subject and presented it in a clear and compelling way. The ability of a citizen to securely communicate with her peers lies at the heart of the rule of law. Landau demonstrates the necessity of protecting that right amidst the technological changes that can greatly alter the balance of power between citizens and governments." Jonathan Zittrain , Professor of Law and Professor of Computer Science, Harvard University; author, The Future of the Internet -- And How to Stop It